Straphangers are looking at a huge fare hike — indeed, maybe more than one — if Albany doesn’t soon find billions for the mass-transit agency.

The only plan in play — predicated on tolling bridges and imposing new taxes — has severely split the Democratic majority in the state Senate.

Delicate — if not inspired — gubernatorial leadership is called for.

Instead, while professing renewed support for an MTA bailout, Paterson kicks down the door and lobs in a hand grenade — gay marriage, the one issue even more divisive than tolling the East River and Harlem River bridges.

Asked Tuesday about why now, for gay marriage, Paterson responded, “The timing was always right. It’s just who was willing to take that step. I am.”

Whatever that means.

Paterson seems oblivious to the fact that Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith has only a 32-30 vote advantage.

Under the best of circumstances.

But he must realize that a key player in any debate is Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) — who last winter threatened to withhold support for Smith as majority leader unless he got assurance that gay-marriage legislation would not be brought up in the current session.

Diaz is one of several senators wavering on an MTA bailout. Those tolls weigh heavy on his district — and now he’s got another reason not to play ball.

And he’s probably not alone.

Perhaps Paterson thinks moving a gay-marriage bill now will help him in the polls. When a politician has a 19 percent approval rating — as does Paterson — he’ll grasp at any straw.

But the governor is where he is pre cisely because he refuses to — or simply can’t — exercise leadership when it counts. (Or even when it doesn’t.)